9781422270455

GROWING UP Before Silbermann was even born, it seemed that his path had already been chosen for him, since his parents, Jane and Neil, were both ophthalmologists , working together at a family practice in Des Moines, Iowa. Silbermann, however, had many interests outside of medicine, such as technology , business, and collecting things. When the Internet began to boom in the 1990s, he was still in high school and was soon drawn to the World Wide Web. He used the Internet to look up successful entrepreneurs like George Eastman, Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs, admiring the way they had all started their own businesses. Silbermann never thought he would one day become one of them. YALE YEARS After graduating from Roosevelt High School, Silbermann left Des Moines for the East Coast to study medicine at Yale University. At first, he was looking forward to being a doctor, but within two years, he began to rethink his career path. Convinced that medicine was not right for him, he considered business as a possibility. When Silbermann asked his friends for business advice, they told him to prepare a résumé and start going on job interviews to get a feel for the direction he wanted to take. Colleges and universities sometimes host job fairs where students can interview with companies that visit the school. Silbermann went to a fair, résumé in hand, and began talking to different companies. He interviewed for a position with a consulting firm, and was offered a

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Story of a Startup